HP Compaq 6710b has got traditionall conservative design. Characteristic is black and dark grey color and square shape. Design is simple without specialitiesand extravagancies. Somebody can call this design as a square black boxes, but some people like this design much more than the futuristic new models of a competition.The chasi is exemplary well manufactured. Cover of display and the basis of notebook are very strong and you can suspect that it can whitstand even rough manipulating,so this notebook has not to be the whole time on the desk of a table.
The 15.4" display is big enough to have relativelly good resolution and the keyboard has enough space to be comfortable So i must say that this is laptop is exemplary case that 15.4" is enough for the majority of works.
On the front side of laptop are only two reproductors. On the back side (as is usual for HP i think) is not power connector, but there areLAN, VGA output, TV out as a S-Video. On the right side are from the rear analog modem, optics mechanic and two USB ports. These USBare better on the back side because when I connect something to the right i got a problem because on the right i usually have external mouse Up from the USB ports is a card reader for SD, MMC, MS/Pro, XD and card inside always overreaches. On the left side is on the back the power connector, thenthere is the output of cooler, two USB ports enough distance apart, two audio connectors and finally firewire with PCMCIA slot which has got dummy plug inside.So as i wrote there is no Express Card slot maybe because there are still not many devices for that slot. Port for docking station is on the down side of laptop uncovered.
Indicating diodes are placed in two rows. First is on the front side aligned to the left. There are 4 diodes - first indicating transmitter Wifi/BT and has got blue light.The second is green and signals if the notebook on or stand-by. Third shows the battery status - when it has got orange color the battery is not charging, If it flashesthe battery is very low and when it is green the battery is charging. Last informs about disc with green color. If protective system for the dosc is activated it signals withorange light. The second row is above the keyboard and is combinated with touch sensors - same as Pavilion laptops. All the buttons which were placed above the keyboard were cancelledand the only one is the power switch. This switch includes green diode with the same logic as the diode on the front. On the right is the icon of HP Info Center which when touchedis green lighted and runs the application. In this application all the options specific for HP notebooks are adjusted, so i think that it is very usefull. Next icon is blue
and shows the work of wireless transmitter and you can switch it on/off by touching. Third icons is for switching to presentation mode.On the middle there are indicators of the locks of keyboard - num lock and caps lock. The last item above the keyboard is the volume controller.
Overall i must say that the sensors are not good at all because when pressing keys on the first row of the keyboard I often pressed the sensor as well so i think old buttons were better.
When the laptop is closed the cover is hold by two locks. Both are moving by draging movable button on the front of the cover. This button is a little bit hard, but i had no problems when opening laptop.The laptop is light if compared to other laptops of the same size. The power adapter has got 90W but is not heavy - 513g including both cables. So, the notebook has got acceptable weight for daily carrying.
---------------------- Keyboard and operating elements ----------------
Keyboard is black with very contrast white lables. Lables for function key are traditionally blue. Layout is ideal i think, space key and shift keys are big enough. In the left down corner is CTRL key.Fn is left from CTRL and it is possible to switch it in the BIOS. There is also the windows key which i dont use. Home, end, pageup, and pagedown are on the right edge og the keyboard and they are divided by small gapfrom the keyboard so it is possible to get them comfortably even when it is dark.With the function key is implemented the sleep switch, graphics output switch and regulation of backlight. If you want to write numbers on the numeric
keyboard there is a small trick - switch on NumLock and then press twice ScrollLock. In that time when you press Fn you will write letters and without will be switched numeric keyboard on the part of letter keys. This is very goodfeature and many people will surely use it. Writing on the keyboard is very comfortable and writing on the keyboard is very silent. So at the end i dont know any wrong thing about the keyboard to write here.
Similar to the majority notebooks the touchpad is in the middle down from the keyboard. It has got two buttons and draging your finger on the right side simulates the wheel on a mouse. Special thing abouttouchpad is that the best is to uninstall all drivers for touchpad to get the touchpad work well in all applications - i mean the feature on the right side is not working always when you have drivers installed.
------------------------ Main HW parameters ---------------------------
Compaq 6710b is based on a platform Santa Rosa. So there is new chipset used and with that slightly inovated processors Core2 Duo. This model has got chipset Intel GM965 and processor Core2 Duo T7500. Processor supports technology SpeedStep which can smoothly decrease power for the processor for better battery time.
There are some hardware test to have a look on the performance numbers of this laptop:
Single-Thread mode
test of calculations with fixed point: 28739
test of calculations with floating point: 53755
Multi-Thread mode (zatížena obě jádra)
test of calculations with fixed point: 17677
test of calculations with floating point: 33071
Windows Vista – CPU
index for operations per second: 5.1
Cinebench 9.5
Rendering (Single CPU): 379
Rendering (Multiple CPU): 677
Multiprocessor Speedup: 1.79
As you can see the results the values are pretty good and can handle every work. To acompany processor there are two 1GB modules 677MHz and the memory got Vista Index 4.8 and transmissivity measured by HWiNFO32 was 2517MB/s
Hard disc 2.5" with 160GB and 5400rpm is standard. 8MB cache makes it faster and the disc is protected by 3D DriveGuard which stops the work of disc when necessary
-------------------------- Display and graphics --------------------------
Display has got enough space to work and on the other side is not large so it is possible to carry laptop in your bag. Display has aspect ratio 16:10 and dark surface. The resolution 1680x1050 is fine and i think that no more is needed. The visibility angles are very good and I was able to read text from display really from everywhere. If you dont like that somebody else can see your screen from angle you can buy HP Privacy Filter. The colors and backlight are excellent so even when working with graphics there is no need to add an extern monitor.
Graphics processing is up to the graphics card Intel GMA X3100 ontegrated on the chipset. Supports Shader Model 3.0 and has got sufficient performance for common applications
and even good for the new workspace Vista Aero and films.
The performance overview surely needs some tests:
3D Mark
3DMark 2001: 6111
3DMark 03: 1765
3DMark 05: 918
3DMark 06: 480
Windows Vista
Index of graphics performance Aero: 3.4
Index of graphics performance for 3D games: 3.5
Cinebench 9.5
Shading (CINEMA 4D): 442
* Shading (OpenGL Software Lighting): 725
* Shading (OpenGL Hardware Lighting): 979
OpenGL Speedup: 2.21
As you can read above, this card is not good for playing the newest games, but if you are not a player then it will fit you well, because this solution cunsumes less power than nin-integrated cards.
----------------------- Multimedia -------------------------------
I didnt supposed any great multimedial features since it is a business laptop. The sound is served by SoundMAX chip and it is only a basic solutionto play. Volume is adjusted above keyboard by the sensors and is not easy to handle. It would be much better with simple buttonsinstead of this.Integrated reproductors are very good. Their quality is very high and apart from other laptops they have good middles. Anyway without a subwooferis the sound poor. Integrated microphone is right above the keyboard and is good for internet calls. A little bit shame is that there is no webcam which is cheap and should be included because many businessmen are often calling home with cam switched on when they are far away for longer time.
-------------------------- Cooling and loudness -------------------------
Cooling circuit is well constructed and seems to be very evective. Inside is one cooler which gets cold air from the down side of the deviceand then the hot air is expelled from the left side. Everything seems OK - it is precise work. Problem is that the whole system is trying to
cool to very low temperatures and as i have measured it seemed to me that cooler is switched off when it is only 40 degrees what is in summerimpossible. Even in climatizated room the cooler runs nearly nonstop. Therefore the cooler often switches to the second speed that is pretty
loud so this is a bit minus for this device.
------------------------- Battery --------------------------------------
I tried the new battery personally and its time was 4hours and 20 minutes. That is very good and usefull value. If you will switch on the full brightness and demand full performance the battery will serve only for 3 hours. It is possible to buy additional battery to get your time up.
------------------------- Conclusion ---------------------------------
The most important negative of this laptop is the loud cooler which will be improved soon. Apart from that the notebook is ideal for business work. Perfect display with high resolution and above-average view angles, keyboard with ideal layout, good touchpad, excellent construction, sinple design and good security. There are the main positives for your work on journeys.
ASUS U3S is very well designed. When closed the notebook is whole black, Only on the back side is a silver line. Cover is made from metal and its surfaceis smooth and reflects like a mirror. It is nice, but you have to clean it often to keep the effect on:) The sides are hardened by metal so the construction is strong. Good thing is the leather surface arounf touchpad. The only thing i dislike about this mode are a bigger edges around display.
